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Chamber to relocate to former Windermere site

Debi Richards, executive director of the Vashon-Maury Island Chamber of Commerce, is excited to move the chamber offices and visitors center into a larger space.

— image credit: Elizabeth Shepherd/Staff Photo

Vashon’s Chamber of Commerce will move into the office on the north end of Vashon town recently vacated by Windermere Real Estate, converting the building’s spacious lobby into a visitor center, said Debi Richards, the chamber’s executive director.

The chamber won’t take the entire suite of offices, she said. Rather, the organization will use two of the offices, turn the lobby into its visitor center and manage the conference room as both a chamber asset and an asset other tenants in the building will be able to use.

“We want more space, and we want a place with a nice visitor’s center,” Richards said, noting that the chamber’s current office at Vashon Village is crammed.

The office building, which for six years housed Windermere, has been made into a suite of private offices that can serve a number of individual tenants, said Mark Vornbrock, who owns the building with two of his brothers and another party.

The Beachcomber’s office is located in an adjacent suite of offices with a separate entrance.

Vornbrock said he’s glad the chamber will become the office complex’s anchor tenant.

“I think it’s just a perfect fit for what we’re doing,” he said.

In addition to the offices the chamber will be leasing, the owners have 12 other offices for rent, two of which appear to be spoken for, Vornbrock said.

The lobby will also serve as a waiting room for other tenants.

Richards said the chamber will staff the large reception desk in the lobby, likely with volunteers.

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